Artificial intelligence will help people to get rid of phobias and fears
Fear has a different nature. It is one thing - be frightened of falling from a great height, and the other - the fear to meet a wild animal in the forest. But there are also a variety of phobias, which simply do not find it right now. Scientists know that when a person is afraid of something, he activates a specific region of the brain. Fear of falling from a height activates a different brain area than the fear of the dark and wild animals. In general, every fear or phobia is left various "prints" the activity of the nervous system.
Neuroscientist Hakwan Lau and his colleagues from various institutions, including Columbia University and the Institute of Science and Technology in Nara (Japan), we decided to study exactly what areas of the brain are activated when a one and the same person of different fears. Perhaps scientists believe it helps to save people from phobias or phobias that he is tortured for a long time and affect the personal life and work.
And "programming phobia" does not imply the deliverance of man from fear at all - in fact it is an integral part of the psyche of any of us. The method of studying the fear is the technology, which is called decoding the neural signals. All the work was done by scientists with the participation of volunteers. In one experiment, participants frightened electric discharge with simultaneous demonstration of colored vertical lines. Over time, almost all the participants in the experiment developed a conditioned reflex to this line, a demonstration which caused the activity of the same area of the brain. All these scholars were fixed and "fed" the neural network as a series of colored MRI pictures.
After that, experts have tried to eliminate the already developed a reflex. So, he showed all the same line. Once AI recorded the appearance of a "fingerprint fear" in the human brain, the participant has not beaten a current experiment, but, for example, showed the inscription "Congratulations, you win 10 cents." "And then the volunteers experienced a positive or neutral feelings during a demonstration of the same stimulus." According Hakvana Lau, all this allows us to speak about the possibility of "treatment" of fear and phobias. Moreover, the demonstration of the red line caused the activation of the same brain region that electric shock to show the red line.
All this sounds like a normal psychological trick, but it is used here, and a weak form of artificial intelligence. The algorithm determines the "fragment of fear" and then use the trigger for the "reconfiguration" of thought and human reflexes. According to scientists, in this experiment, all participants were able to "cure" for fear of the electric discharge, so that they are no longer afraid of the red vertical line, experiencing pleasant feelings instead. What can I use a technique experts in everyday life? For example, to get rid of people suffering arachnophobia or other types of phobias.
In order to be able to "reprogram" phobia, professionals should form a card file of the brain signals for AI. For example, about arachnophobia activates the same areas of the brain in different individuals. Pattern, "Sample arachnophobia" received from one person, help AI to fight with the same fear of the other person. How? Approximately the same as in the case of a shock discharge current and demonstration colored line.
Spider man show, for example, the same color vertical line. Once produced reflex line, the patient is transferred to the second stage. Here he shows the same line, which forms the "fingerprint arachnophobia", and then - something pleasant for him personally. For example, orange, cat, or a butterfly. Over time, in humans corresponding reaction formed and these new stimuli. But they cause the patient to have positive feelings rather than negative. Revitalization of the same areas of the brain are now feeling is not fear, but something else, pleasant or neutral emotion. And then people can look at spiders, without any fear - the fear just vanishes.
No AI can not do here - the neural network should be familiar with a clear "fingerprint fear" and only when it appears to show a man stimuli for "reprogramming".
Interestingly, the reverse method is not working. That is not to develop a negative emotion for something that makes people pleasant. Substitution in this case, for some reason, not activated. For example, if you show a sweet tooth cake, and then all the same line, after securing reflex man can not instill a sense of disgust for cakes, for a certain time showing the previous stimulus and something unpleasant. Fear of using this method can be cured, but not planting.
The researchers say that they would like to use a method in hospitals, but for now it is impossible. Firstly, we can not say precisely how long it takes, "reprogramming" of a person in each case. It all depends on the individual. In addition, not all types of phobias and fears, this method is applicable.
But this does not mean that neural networks do not know what scares us. For example, at MIT have developed a "nightmare machine". The system in this case creates a gloomy cityscapes and frightening portraits of celebrities persons.
And, IBM has created a trailer for one of the AI films by means of the same weak form of artificial intelligence. In the near future, probably, opportunities and projects like the one that was shown in an episode of "Black Mirror".
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